D-C 25 watt rods

[Ruth Phillips]

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Greg - the 25 watt rod was discontinued as a system staple long ago.
On the soundboard, once compression has taken place, drying the wood is not
going to make it disappear.  When you install a system you will find that
the wood changes - that is about all you can say with certainty.  With the
right equipment, properly installed, the system will stabilize the wood.
Once it stabilizes, you can make corrections based on what you find at that
point.  It may take some time as there will be residual change, such as
there is when you change pitch.  Every change causes reactions, and you keep
at it until the change is so miniscule that the reaction is meaningless.
I hope this helps to clarify what you found.
Ruth Phillips


Greetings listers,
         I have recently installed a standard Dampp-Chaser ,ok,ok, Piano=20
Life Saver system on a small 5 foot something Petrof grand. The reason for=
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installation was to try and diminish or eliminate some compression ridges=20
in it's soundboard. After installation I asked the customer to wait a month=
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or so and call me for a tuning once it has had a chance to settle down as=20
per my normal procedure. The month came and I went out to tune and found no=
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appreciable difference in the compression ridges. The customer and I are=20
concerned that the system is less effective than we would like it to be.=20
After a couple conversations with Becky first and then Roger at the Piano=20
Life Saver Systems offices I hadn't really reached any iron clad=20
conclusions but I did have more information.
         One of the observations that my customer had was that the rearward=
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mounted heating rod was getting much hotter than the long one mounted near=
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the keybed. Since I have the distinct advantage of living rather close to=20
this customer I went right over. We plugged both rods directly into an=20
extension cord and then directly into the wall outlet to eliminate anything=
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weird in the control unit or the 1-3 plug adapter. The results were the=20
same. The long rod was much cooler than the short rod. I looked for the=20
markings on the rods and they both are 25 watt. Now that makes a little bit=
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of sense. The 25 watts will have much more of an affect on a piece of metal=
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half the size of the other one. My question to all of you who have ever=20
installed or thought about installing one of these systems is; "Does this=20
not create an imbalance where the sole purpose of installing a system such=
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as this is to gain balance?". Simple logic would seem to dictate that the=20
short rod being hotter than the long one would make the tail of the piano=20
warmer and therefore dryer than the front under the belly rail.
         If my logic holds up I think that there are a few consequences=20
here. First and foremost these standard systems should be discontinued or=20
changed in some way to achieve the balance that we are purchasing the=20
system for in the first place. Secondly, there are quite a few systems out=
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there that probably should have a second look and a swap of heater rods.=20
I'm rather concerned that a first time installer expecting the stability=20
touted by not only the company but my many of us who have installed systems=
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in the past simply will not have that experience with the current standard=
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system. It may have some effect but certainly not what it could by my=20
thinking.
         I must confess to never having given much though to the various=20
configurations possible with these systems. I was operating under the=20
assumptions that someone else has figured out all this already and all I=20
need to do is follow the directions and I will be able to have the same=20
success that others claim. Once the systems I've put on in the past were=20
installed I didn't go looking for trouble. If no one complained I figured=20
all was going as planned. I will have to rethink that strategy obviously.
         I would encourage all of you who have any interest at all to share=
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your observations not only with this list but also with the fine folks at=20
Piano Life Saver Systems and also all of the suppliers and resellers for=20
these systems. I say this because I wish I had been warned and purchased a=
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system with one 2 ft. 25 watt rod and one 4 ft 50 watt rod to achieve the=20
balance I'm looking for. I personally would like to see the standard 2 ft=20
25 watt and 4 ft 25 watt configuration discontinued. I'd love to know what=
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YOU think.

Greg Newell
Greg's piano Fort=E9
mailto:gnewell@ameritech.net

P.S. you should know that Becky and Roger at Piano Life Saver Systems were=
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extremely helpful and congenial as always. =20


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